London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2025

Saudi strongman 'encouraged' Russia intervention in Syria, lawsuit claims

Saudi strongman 'encouraged' Russia intervention in Syria, lawsuit claims

Former spy chief Saad Aljabri, who is in hiding in Canada, says Mohammed bin Salman flipped his country’s support for rebels on its head in 2015

In the summer of 2015 Mohammed bin Salman, then Saudi defence minister and third in line to the throne, turned his country’s foreign policy on its head and gave a covert green light for Russia’s intervention in Syria, according to a lawsuit by a former top intelligence official.

In his complaint filed in a federal court in Washington, Saad Aljabri alleges that the abrupt switch of course by the man who is now Saudi Arabia’s crown prince alarmed the then CIA director, John Brennan, who met Aljabri in July and August of 2015 to pass on a rebuke from the Obama administration.

“Brennan expressed concern that defendant bin Salman was encouraging Russian intervention in Syria, at a time when Russia was not yet a party to the war in Syria,” the lawsuit, filed last week in the District of Columbia district court, alleged. “Dr Saad passed Brennan’s message to defendant bin Salman, who responded with fury.”

Aljabri said the meetings with Brennan cost him his job as the second most powerful man in Saudi intelligence and his country’s liaison with the CIA. He later fled Saudi Arabia and is now living in hiding in Canada, where he alleges the crown prince tried to have him killed by a Saudi death squad, shortly after the murder of the Saudi dissident and journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

Aljabri filed his accusation of attempted extrajudicial killing as a “flagrant violation of US law and international norms and standards” under the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Alien Tort Statute.

Neither the Saudi government nor the Saudi embassy in Washington has commented on the allegations. Aljabri did not provide evidence for his allegations and the Guardian has not been able to independently verify them.

In March Aljabri’s 20-year-old daughter, Sarah and his 21-year-old son Omar, were arrested, and have not been seen since. Aljabri says they are being held as hostages to force him to return home, because of his detailed knowledge of Prince Mohammed’s rise to power. The Royal court has not commented on Aljabri’s children’s whereabouts.

The claim that Prince Mohammed secretly invited Russia to intervene in Syria at a time when Bashar al-Assad was close to falling, is an explosive one. The Saudi monarchy was ostensibly supporting anti-Assad rebels, and Russian bombing of rebel-held cities in support of Assad has since killed tens of thousands of Syrian civilians.

Western diplomats say that soon after Prince Mohammed became defence minister, with the ascent of his father to the Saudi throne following the death of King Abdullah in January 2015, he was strongly influenced by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, another young moderniser with radical ideas.

This week Sheikh Mohammed caught the Arab world by surprise by striking a US-brokered agreement to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

A source familiar with the sequence of events in 2015 said that Prince Mohammed and Sheikh Mohammed (widely known as MBS and MBZ) met at the Idex arms fair in Abu Dhabi in February.

“That was a turning point in MBS’s ambition and vision and belief,” the source claimed. Sheikh Mohammed is said to have argued that the threat of a Muslim Brotherhood revolution in Syria was worse from the point of view of their Gulf monarchies than Assad’s survival.

The Emirati prince also persuaded his ambitious Saudi counterpart that if he was going to compete with, and eventually oust, his cousin, Mohammad bin Nayef – then deputy crown prince and intelligence chief (and Aljabri’s patron) with close ties to Brennan and the Obama administration – he would have to find friends beyond Washington.

“MBZ said you have to start building new alliances, and you need to pivot to China and Russia and MBZ had a good relationship with Putin,” the source said.

Hassan Hassan, director of the non-state actors program at the Center for Global Policy in Washington, said: “I was privy to some of the high-level conversations regarding the Gulf states’ support for a Russian-led role in Syria after the Yemen war was launched in [March] 2015. At the time, the UAE was pushing for the idea of helping Russia stabilize Syria and enabling the Assad regime to reclaim control of the country.”

“When I read Aljabri’s claim about MBS asking Russia to intervene in Syria, that immediately made sense to me, considering the conversations I heard in 2015 and 2017,” Hassan said.

One of the effects of this drift towards Moscow was a draining of political will and resources from a joint intelligence effort by the US, UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in support of an agreed list of Syrian rebel groups.

The initiative which was started by Bin Nayef and Aljabri with CIA assistance, was known as the Riyadh Room because representatives from the parties involved met in a facility in the diplomatic quarter of the Saudi capital, to discuss which factions to back and which were unacceptable.

The Riyadh Room achieved some success in imposing some discipline and structure to western and Gulf support for anti-Assad forces in 2014, but it dissipated in the spring and summer of 2015 with Prince Mohammed’s rise.

In June of that year, Prince Mohammed – by then deputy crown prince – went to St Petersburg where he met Putin. They signed cooperation agreements on oil, space and nuclear energy, but also, according to Aljabri’s account, discussed Russia’s entry into the Syrian war.


Saad Aljabri’s children, Omar and Sarah, were arrested in Saudi Arabia in March and have not been seen since. Photograph: Aljabri family


When the CIA heard about these discussions, Brennan asked Aljabri for an urgent meeting in July in Dublin, roughly halfway between their two capitals, to convey US displeasure, according to a source familiar with the exchanges between the two men.

“They [the Americans] were enraged,” the source said. “It was as if Assad was about to be given a knockout punch and MBS gave him the kiss of life.”

Brennan, now retired from public service and working on a memoir, declined to comment on Aljabri’s claims. Saudi officials also did not respond to requests for comment.

A few weeks later, Aljabri met Brennan a second time in the US and at about the same time had talks in London with the British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, who expressed similar concerns.

When Aljabri reported back on those conversations to the Saudi national security council, Prince Mohammed took it as a direct challenge to his authority, according to the exiled intelligence official, and orchestrated his dismissal on 10 September, less than three weeks before Russia began airstrikes in Syria.

Aljabri remained an adviser to Bin Nayef until May 2017 when he left the kingdom a month before his patron was deposed as crown prince and replaced by Prince Mohammed.

A former diplomat in the region said that the inclusion of the claims about the crown prince, Putin and Russia’s intervention in Syria in Aljabri’s lawsuit in Washington was intended to send a message.


A Russian military police officer is seen in the Syrian village of Ain al-Habr last month.


“I assume that the purpose of this deposition is to tell MBS that Saad is not going to back down,” the former diplomat said. “You can arrest one of my sons one of my daughters, but if you persist in this, I have information on you which will hole you below the waterline.”
Advertisement

He retired diplomat said: “He’s signaling that he knows stuff, and some of that is about Syria.”

While the allegation of connivance with Moscow is damaging to the crown prince, most western diplomats argue Russia would have entered the war without covert encouragement from Saudi and Emirati princes. They suggest another visitor in July of 2015 was far more instrumental, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard general, Qassem Soleimani.

In Moscow, according to an account by Reuters, Soleimani unfurled a map of Syria for his Russian counterparts to explain Assad’s precarious position and how Putin’s intervention could turn the tide.

“I don’t think Putin gave a Siberian shit about what the Saudis and Emiratis wanted, basically,” the western former diplomat said. “But I think he would have enjoyed them wanting the Russians to come in, because it was a kick in the teeth for the US.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
‘Frightening’ First Night in Prison for Sarkozy: Inmates Riot and Shout ‘Little Nicolas’
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Nicolas Sarkozy begins five-year prison term at La Santé in Paris
Japan stocks surge to record as Sanae Takaichi becomes Prime Minister
This Is How the 'Heist of the Century' Was Carried Out at the Louvre in Seven Minutes: France Humiliated as Crown with 2,000 Diamonds Vanishes
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
×